Wednesday, February 01, 2006

What they have to say

Khalid Mish'al

Tuesday January 31, 2006

The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1698702,00.html

It is widely recognised that the Palestinians are among the most politicisedand educated peoples in the world. When they went to the polls lastWednesday they were well aware of what was on offer and those who voted forHamas knew what it stood for. They chose Hamas because of its pledge neverto give up the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and its promiseto embark on a programme of reform. There were voices warning them, locallyand internationally, not to vote for an organisation branded by the US andEU as terrorist because such a democratically exercised right would costthem the financial aid provided by foreign donors.

The day Hamas won the Palestinian democratic elections the world's leadingdemocracies failed the test of democracy. Rather than recognise thelegitimacy of Hamas as a freely elected representative of the Palestinianpeople, seize the opportunity created by the result to support thedevelopment of good governance in Palestine and search for a means of endingthe bloodshed, the US and EU threatened the Palestinian people withcollective punishment for exercising their right to choose theirparliamentary representatives.

We are being punished simply for resisting oppression and striving forjustice. Those who threaten to impose sanctions on our people are the samepowers that initiated our suffering and continue to support our oppressorsalmost unconditionally. We, the victims, are being penalised while ouroppressors are pampered. The US and EU could have used the success of Hamasto open a new chapter in their relations with the Palestinians, the Arabsand the Muslims and to understand better a movement that has so far beenseen largely through the eyes of the Zionist occupiers of our land.

Our message to the US and EU governments is this: your attempt to force usto give up our principles or our struggle is in vain. Our people who gavethousands of martyrs, the millions of refugees who have waited for nearly 60years to return home and our 9,000 political and war prisoners in Israelijails have not made those sacrifices in order to settle for close tonothing.

Hamas has been elected mainly because of its immovable faith in theinevitability of victory; and Hamas is immune to bribery, intimidation andblackmail. While we are keen on having friendly relations with all nationswe shall not seek friendships at the expense of our legitimate rights. Wehave seen how other nations, including the peoples of Vietnam and SouthAfrica, persisted in their struggle until their quest for freedom andjustice was accomplished. We are no different, our cause is no less worthy,our determination is no less profound and our patience is no less abundant.

Our message to the Muslim and Arab nations is this: you have aresponsibility to stand by your Palestinian brothers and sisters whosesacrifices are made on behalf of all of you. Our people in Palestine shouldnot need to wait for any aid from countries that attach humiliatingconditions to every dollar or euro they pay despite their historical andmoral responsibility for our plight. We expect you to step in and compensatethe Palestinian people for any loss of aid and we demand you lift allrestrictions on civil society institutions that wish to fundraise for thePalestinian cause.

Our message to the Palestinians is this: our people are not only those wholive under siege in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip but also the millionslanguishing in refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria and the millionsspread around the world unable to return home. We promise you that nothingin the world will deter us from pursuing our goal of liberation and return.We shall spare no effort to work with all factions and institutions in orderto put our Palestinian house in order. Having won the parliamentaryelections, our medium-term objective is to reform the PLO in order to reviveits role as a true representative of all the Palestinian people, withoutexception or discrimination.

Our message to the Israelis is this: we do not fight you because you belongto a certain faith or culture. Jews have lived in the Muslim world for 13centuries in peace and harmony; they are in our religion "the people of thebook" who have a covenant from God and His Messenger Muhammad (peace be uponhim) to be respected and protected. Our conflict with you is not religiousbut political. We have no problem with Jews who have not attacked us - ourproblem is with those who came to our land, imposed themselves on us byforce, destroyed our society and banished our people.

We shall never recognise the right of any power to rob us of our land anddeny us our national rights. We shall never recognise the legitimacy of aZionist state created on our soil in order to atone for somebody else's sinsor solve somebody else's problem. But if you are willing to accept theprinciple of a long-term truce, we are prepared to negotiate the terms.Hamas is extending a hand of peace to those who are truly interested in apeace based on justice.